More than 90 FemTech companies in the Netherlands are working to close the gender health gap. Most didn’t know the others existed.
In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk, co-founders of FemTech NL, the organization connecting FemTech companies across the Netherlands. We talk about why the ecosystem has been so fragmented, and what FinTech has already learned about moving from competition to collaboration.
This episode is for FemTech founders raising their first round, investors building a thesis in women’s health, and women in tech curious about how a fragmented industry starts moving together.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why more than 90 FemTech companies in the Netherlands have been building in isolation from each other
- What FemTech NL’s five pillars, communication, data, collaboration, research, and funding, are meant to fix
- Why the most successful founders lead with the commercial opportunity, not the social case
- What FinTech’s shift from competition to collaboration can teach FemTech about adoption
- Why the global opportunity here is valued at $1 trillion a year, according to a McKinsey study
- Why the goal isn’t “the future is female,” but equal healthcare for men and women
- Why closing the gender health gap would take more than a century, at the current pace, and what could speed that up
Connect with Maaike Steinebach and Sophie van Dijk
Maaike Steinebach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaike-steinebach-8a3a304/
Sophie van Dijk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-vandijk/
FemTech NL website: femtechnl.com
Show notesBlog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/07/02/episode-159/
Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/womendisruptingtech/p/episode-159?r=2v0lts&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
About Women Disrupting Tech
Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors in HealthTech, FinTech, ClimateTech, and AI rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to get it in your feed.
